Coaches Blog

I could not have expressed these thoughts better myself. Here are comments from a youth coach on the stair-step approach to soccer for youth players from Horst Wein (a US Youth Soccer Workshop presenter in 2006 by the way) and the US Youth Soccer document "Vision". The last line is a question for you to contemplate.

Since the moment I first read Horst Wein's "Developing Youth Football Players" in 2007, he has been one of my biggest youth soccer coaching influences and inspirations. My youth coaching philosophy is heavily "Horst Wein-ian" influenced. He's helped to bolster my self-confidence and intelligence, and help me to put aside my ego, tap into my humility, and try to be the kind of youth coach who is perceptive enough of my youth players to recognize when I must be flexible and adapt, change, modify and experiment in order to attempt to meet their ever changing and unique needs.

I really liked your "Vision" article. I'll share it with my team and forward it to my club's president and some of the other coaches I know. It should be mandatory reading for every youth soccer coach and should be part of every coaching course/license/certificate curriculum. The best coaches I've met and worked with live and work the "Vision". The coach I try to be lives and works the "Vision".

It's a shame that some of those who run our youth soccer organizations and/or teach coaching courses all over the country, often give lip service to, or don't understand/believe or use the many important topics and concepts you cover in your article. Their programs, players, and youth soccer in the U.S. suffer for their lip service and rubber stamping.

You may be familiar with the English FA's skills assessment program called "Soccerstar Challenge" (http://www.fa-soccerstar.com/). I like the utility of the individual tests for establishing a player's baseline and being able to show personal improvement through the season. However, I think the "stars" comparison rating system of each individual's scores against the scores in the "Soccerstar Challenge" database is interesting but not very useful to me.

Too many children don't get the chance to develop or grow their potential for playing, and/or enjoying soccer because there are not enough "Vision" and "Horst Wein-ian" adults and coaches who can help them begin to realize this potential.

Could you be one of the coaches who can help them?

If you would like to receive a copy of the Vision document then just drop me a line and I'll be glad to send a copy to you.